National Cherry Cheesecake Day

April 23rd is National Cherry Cheesecake Day in the United States.

Cheesecakes are a dessert dish based around soft cheese. The cheese is usually on top of a bottom layer that is comprised of crushed biscuit (cookies), pastry or sponge, though other things, such as crushed Graham crackers, are also used. The cheese itself can be cream cheese, ricotta or quark. Cheesecakes can be baked, or simply assembled and chilled.

The flavourings and toppings of cheesecake can vary tremendously. The flavours and ingredients can be added to the cheesecake itself, or just used to top an ordinary, probably vanilla, cheesecake.

In this case cherries are used. Some cherries are more suitable for use in a dessert than others. Cherries would most commonly be used to top a plain cheesecake, and would be in a sauce.

Image: Creative Commons attribution licensed for commercial use https://www.flickr.com/photos/lehighvalleypa/ Lehigh Valley, PA

National Cheesecake Day

July 30th is National Cheesecake Day in America.

Cheesecakes, despite their name, are a sweet dish, that may date back to ancient Greece. There are a lot of different possible variations on the cheesecake, with different countries and regions having their own types.

The dish can only have one layer, but two layered cheesecakes are probably the most common, with even more layers being possible.

The "cheese" part of the cheesecake - which is the main part - is made from actual cheese, which is typically a soft cheese of some type, such as cream cheese, ricotta or quark. The soft cheese is often mixed with eggs and sugar.

The two layered cheesecakes also have a thin, bottom layer, which can be made from crushed cookies (biscuits), pastry, sponge cake and graham crackers. Cheesecakes with more than two layers may have a different layer, perhaps of fruit or chocolate, sandwiched between two layers of the cheese, making a cake with four layers, or the cheese layer itself could be made of two different types.

Toppings of various types are also common, as are sauces and syrups. Different flavourings, ingredients and fruit can also be incorporated into the cheese layer. Cheesecakes may be baked in the oven, or not, with the latter often bring simply refrigerated until they solidify.

National Blueberry Cheesecake Day

May 26th is National Blueberry Cheesecake Day in the United States.

This is another day celebrating a flavour of cheesecake, this time a blueberry one. This could be made with fresh blueberries, assuming the cheesecake is itself made fresh, but tinned and frozen blueberries are also possibilities.

All cheesecakes are made from one, or more, layers of soft cheese which is often flavoured. This soft cheese is on a base made from such things as crushed biscuits (cookies), graham crackers, sponge cake and pastry.

To make a blueberry cheesecake, there are different ways to go about it, some of which could be combined. The soft cheese could have whole blueberries, or blueberry flavour, added to it. For a cheesecake made of two or more layers of soft cheese, blueberries could be in a layer separating the cheese. The cheesecake could be a simple vanilla cheesecake which has been topped with a blueberry coulis.

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day

National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day is on October 21st in the United States.

Pumpkins are a type of squash, distinctive for their orange colouration and size, that are native to North America. They are in season at this time of year, and are strongly associated with Halloween, so one method of preparing them is as a cheesecake.

Pumpkins are quite a versatile vegetable, being used in both sweet and savoury dishes. This dish is, naturally, one of the sweet ones. In a pumpkin cheesecake, the most common method of preparation would use biscuits (or equivalent) as the base, then the cheese and finally it would be topped off with the pumpkin. Cheesecakes are made with many different flavourings and toppings.

Although you could make your own from a fresh pumpkin, pre-prepared pumpkin filling is commercially available. There is a difference between tinned pumpkin and pumpkin filling, though; the latter comes with spices added and is suitable for immediate use, whilst the former is simply tinned pumpkin.